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Colorado flu season heating up as some run out of vaccine, cases rise

Registered nurse Charlene Luxcin administers a flu shot to a patient at the Whittier Street Health Center in Boston, Mass., Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. Boston declared a public health emergency Wednesday as the city tried to deal with a harsh flu season and the state reported 18 flu-related deaths so far. (AP | Charles Krupa)

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Vaccine shortages are hitting the metro area as flu cases spike to high levels and people seek protection, while hospitalizations for the annual problem are running ahead of normal.

Kaiser Permanente, with hundreds of thousands of members up and down the Front Range, stopped giving out flu shots this week and may not resume until Friday, when new shipments arrive, a spokeswoman said.

Colorado has seen 506 flu-related hospitalizations so far in the season that straddles 2012-13, with hospital cases picking up in November, a month earlier than usual, according to Dr. Lisa Miller, manager of the communicable disease epidemiology program for state health. The average for the whole flu season in recent years has been about 750 hospital cases.

Colorado's cases are widespread, in 33 counties. Two children have died from the flu this season; the state does not collect numbers of adult deaths from the flu, but they are relatively common in all years. The CDC said Wednesday there are widespread flu outbreaks in 43 states and local outbreaks in others.

The Department of Public Health and Environment does not officially track vaccine shortages, but it has heard anecdotally that patients have to call around more than usual to find locations still offering them.

Flu shots can still be effective, as the season extends through early spring, but it can take two weeks for immunity to peak after a shot.

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An infectious-disease specialist at the University of Colorado Hospital said the flu season so far is the worst she has seen in at least 10 years. UCH, which has had 19 hospitalizations, still has vaccine and encourages patients to get the shot.

Kaiser is telling its 535,000 Colorado members to keep checking for vaccine availability, which is likely to begin again Friday, said spokeswoman Amy Whited. About 210,000 members had already gotten the vaccine, which health authorities say has done a good job matching and blocking the strains of flu in the community.

Kaiser is seeing two to three times the demand for shots as usual for this time of year, when requests typically start to die down. The Kaiser flu hotline is 303-344-7600. If members get a flu shot elsewhere before Kaiser can give out vaccine again, they can contact member services and get a reimbursement, Whited said.

Colorado's worst year recently was the 2009-10 pandemic, when the state saw about 2,000 hospitalizations. "We haven't broken any records yet, but it's not clear what the whole season will look like," Miller said. If the current spate of cases represents the top of the spike, numbers could decline toward a more normal year.

Most metro hospitals are taking only the usual flu season precautions for patients and visitors, including screening those with flu symptoms into separate waiting areas, offering masks and sanitizer in prominent places, and restricting visits to infant areas.

The state recently required all health workers, contractors and volunteers to get flu shots, in graduated percentages at each facility over a few years. Many hospitals accelerated that on their own and have required all workers to be immunized this year, to a few protests.